Letters to the editor, April 10

Is
predatory lending practice the real issue regarding payday lending and title
loans? If so, take note. I was recently lured into a getting a credit card
issued by a bank with a promise of $20 off my purchase.

The
“introductory rate” is 11.9 percent. Then it goes to 25.24 percent. If I miss a
payment, it goes to 29.99 percent with an additional $35 penalty regardless of
the monthly amount owed. Remember the Fed funds rate has been 0.25 percent
since December 2008. The prime rate has been 3.25 percent since January 2009.

It seems
to me a bank charging 823 percent over the prime rate and 11,986 percent over
the Fed funds rate is just as predatory.

I have an
excellent credit score, good income and more assets than liabilities. If
someone with limited resources and minimum wage is shut out of the regular
lending institutions, where will the person go to get a loan?

If the
banks bemoan the regulations they are under, it seems to me the problem is not
payday lending companies, but the Washington nannies who think they can
“protect us.”

Government
wants to “help us” so it passes laws and regulations (housing for the poor, for
example).

Reality
sets in and it is a failure (housing bust) so the government looks for a
scapegoat (banks). The government passes more regulations (greater lending
controls) to solve the problem it created, which creates another problem
(payday lending) that now needs government help to resolve.

See the
trend? Now do you understand why we need smaller government?

Steve Sullivan,
Denton

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